It's Gettin' Dark, Too Dark To See

"This was for a particular scene in the movie when Slim Pickens is dying and that’s the first time I ever cried while I played. It was the combination of the words, Bob [Dylan]’s voice, the actual music itself, the changes, and seeing the screen…In those days you were on a big soundstage, and you had this massive screen that you can see on the wall, [with] the scene…running when you’re playing. I cried through that whole take.” - Jim Keltner, drummer on Bob Dylan's original recording of "Knockin' On Heaven's Door" (as quoted in Bob Dylan: The Complete Guide)

(Sadly, embedding is disabled for the clip Keltner describes in the above quote. I've included a YouTube video below featuring only the audio of the song, but I'd encourage you to also watch the film clip.)

Too Busy Trademarking The Feared Beard

Odd story from the SF Gate yesterday. In short: San Francisco Giants begin using a script logo in 1993, forget to trademark it, and now an unaffiliated merch company has trademarked it -- and sued the Giants. How did both the Giants and MLB screw this up? We all know Uncle Bud loves that merchandising revenue. And seriously, those knock-off black and orange "San Francisco" jackets have been all over the city for years. Why did no one from the Giants or MLB act sooner?

Ultimately, this will be a nice little payday for the attorneys on both sides. Yes, the mark obviously belongs to the Giants, but there's no one to root for here. Incompetence vs. sleaze? Pass.

Boston Globe: Inside The Red Sox' Collapse

Devastating piece about the Red Sox' September collapse, and it seems to confirm most of the speculation floating around the web: booze, bad attitudes, failure to lead, and upper management distracted by a myriad of business interests. Only Dustin Pedroia comes out looking good.

To be fair, one can't help but feel that the timing of the report is suspect, with Theo Epstein reportedly leaving for Chicago, and the Terry Francona dirt is out of bounds, regardless of what team you root for.

The Beatles - "Revolution 1" (unedited Take 20, recorded 1968, leaked 2009)

To celebrate what would have been John Lennon's 71st birthday today, here's the unedited, 11-minute version of "Revolution 1" from the The Beatles (aka The White Album).

Recorded in June 1968, this is how John Lennon first envisioned the song, before splitting it in half and creating "Revolution 9" as a companion piece. No electric guitar overdub or horns in this version (as on the album), but there are instead lots of other vocals, effects and sound collage stuff that ended up being edited into "Revolution 9." Really, really fun listen.

Tebow No

Are we done talking about Tim Tebow's NFL non-career yet? Single most overrated athlete in America (sorry, Florida's 2009 national championship means nothing in the NFL). His obsessive supporters are a) sports writers who are only in it for the page views, b) religious fundamentalists who see Tebow as "one of their own," or c) overzealous fans who treat Timmy like a teenage pop idol. Is Siberia still scary and jail-y? Whoever decides these things, let's send Tebow, Favre, LeBron, and Tiger there, yesterday.